The next gen and more read the philosopher's stone
by doingthedooweeooo
Summary: While in the library, Rose finds a book. There is a note that is from Hogwarts herself and she wants Teddy, Rose, Hugo, James, Lily, Albus and Scorpius to read it. Will they be able to keep this secret from the adults?
1. Of books and Notes

**Prologue**

**D: I don't own HP**

Rose Weasley was in the Potter's library, searching for _Hogwarts, a History: volume two_. Rose, who barely ever had trouble finding the book she wanted, was having a bit of trouble. She had been searching for what felt like hours. When she was about to give up, there was a strange flash of light, and then out of it came…a book and a note. The note was addressed to Teddy Lupin. The book was called _Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. _Rose smiled to herself. This was better than _Hogwarts, a History: volume two_. She set off towards her cousin's god-brother's room.

"Teddy," asked Rose, after knocking on the door "I found this book in the library. There's also a note that's with it. It's to you. Oh, the book is called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone" Rose concluded. She then looked at Teddy. He had a rather odd expression on his face. "Rose, can you please call James, Al, Lily, Hugo, and Scorpius?" "Yes Teddy" replied Rose, as she went to floo Scorp.

Teddy Lupin curiously looked at the note. It said:

_Dear Teddy,_

_We found these books and sent them to you. You might want to read these to your cousins. They are some novels about your god-father's years at Hogwarts, one book for each year. They are written by a muggle seer and the muggles believe that it's fiction._

_They are written in your point of view._

_Also, some people from the past will be coming over but you must have;_

_Yourself (Teddy Lupin)_

_James S Potter_

_Albus S Potter_

_Lily L Potter_

_Rose Weasley_

_Hugo Weasley_

_Scorpius Malfoy_

_You are also able invite different people, but don't ask them to come until you're at least half way through the second chapter._

_The next book will appear in the library after you have finished the first._

_Good luck Teddy,_

_Hogwarts (yes I am an actual person)._

_P.S: You _must _keep these away from the adults. I will tell you why later._

When everyone had arrived, Teddy explained what had happened.

"I say we read them. It's not like we can change the future coz' it's already happened." Hugo said.

"Also we must keep these secret from the adults, according to Hogwarts" Teddy said

"Why?" Lily asked

"Hogwarts will tell us later, apparently" Teddy said, studying the note again.

Everyone nodded and Teddy picked up the book.

"**Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone**

**Chapter one, The Boy who lived"**

**A/N: Well that's chapter 1 done. Hope you liked it. There aren't many of Next gen reads the Harry Potter books. So yeah I hope it's alright. Au reviour.**


	2. The boy who lived

"**Chapter one: The Boy-who-Lived"** Teddy read.

"Hmmm, I wonder who that is." Fred asked sarcastically.

"**Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much." **

"Your VERY welcome" James said.

"James shush" Lily scolded.

"**They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.****"**

Nooooooo, not nonsense!" Fred exclaimed.

"Shut up" yelled Lily and Hugo, who then grinned.

"**Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills."**

"What?" the purebloods asked.

"Muggle stuff" Rose said, as if that explained everything.

"**He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache."**

"He sounds lovely" Rose stated.

"**Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours."**

"Hey, isn't that great aunt Petunia?" Albus asked.

"Yep."

"**The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere."**

Albus, Rose, James, Lily and Fred snorted, but wouldn't explain when the others gave them confused looks.

"**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it."**

"But that's what secrets are for!" exclaimed Fred and James.

The others just shook their heads fondly.

"**They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters."**

"What's wrong with us/the Potter's!" everyone sans Scorpius shouted.

"You want a list?" he asked sarcastically.

"**Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister"**

Everyone looked sad at that, Rose and Lily especially.

"**,because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be.****" **

"Grandpa was anything but good-for-nothing!" Albus shouted.

All the kids stared at him.

They had never seen him that angry.

"UnDursleyish, that isn't even a word!" exclaimed Rose.

**The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in the street.**

"They would say "look at those good looking people." James said.

**The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that. **

"Harry's ten times better than that pig!" Teddy yelled and then blushed.

**When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts,**

"You mean, the story hasn't started yet?" Albus asked innocently

**there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work,**

"why did he do that?" Scorpius asked.

"He's a boring person, Scorp" Lily told him, matter-of-factly

**and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily **

"soundslike her" Fred thought

**as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair. **

James smirked, imagining a screaming Dudley.

Everyone who had met the said person was doing the same thing.

**None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.**

"Blind" Scorpius coughed.

Rose wacked him in the back of his head.

**At half past eight, **

"Very exact" James said

**Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, **

"Oh no he picked up his suitcase. The world's gonna end!" Albus yelled

**pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, **

"Break her, break her" Fred chanted

**and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed,**

"How could he miss him?" Albus mused silently

**because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. **

Again, Fred, James, Albus, Rose and Lily all snorted.

When the rest gave them inquiring looks, Albus said, "Let's just say Uncle Dudley would have a fit if he knew that, once in his life, he had wasted food.

"**Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley **

The snorts had suddenly turned to full-blown laughter.

"Dudders is anything but little" Lily said once they had caught their breath

**as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive. **

"That's why it's called number _four_ privet drive" Teddy said.

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar — a cat reading a map. **

"Minnie" yelled Fred and James.

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen — then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of?**

"A question I ask myself a lot, and I always come up with the same answer: nothing," James said and everyone sniggered.

**It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive — no, **_**looking **_**at the sign; cats couldn't read maps **_**or **_**signs.**

"That's what you think" James and Fred in a sing-song voice.

**Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day. **

"He has got a one-tracked mind" Rose said surprised.

"Are you really surprised?" Scorpius asked.

Rose blushed.

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam,**

"What does that taste like?" Fred asked.

Rose sighed and answered "it's a figure of speech"

**he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks. **

"Dun,dun, duuuuuun" Hugo said

**Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes — the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together.**

Albus felt tears come to his eyes. He had realised that this was that day.

**Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! **

"Oh yes, how dare he wear a cloak!" Fred said pompously.

**But then it struck Mr. Dursley**

"What lightning?" Albus asked weakly

**that this was probably some silly stunt —these people were obviously collecting for something… yes, that would be it. **

"The lengths muggles go to avoid magic" Fred sighed.

**The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills. **

"You know, I never realised how much he loved drills until these books." Albus said.

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. **_**He **_**didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at night time. **

Hugo looked at Rose "why?"

"In the muggle world, owls only come out at night" Hugo nodded.

**Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more. **

"What a productive day." James sighed.

"Yeah, I wish I could have a life like this guy" Fred said.

**He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road **

"did I hear that right? The whale is walking?" Albus asked surprised

**to buy himself a bun from the bakers opposite.**

"That would be right" Albus said. Most people snickered.

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This lot were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**"**The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard –"** " — **yes, their son, Harry – " **

Albus once again looked down.

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead. **

"I wish" James muttered.

**Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it. **

"Coward" James and Fred coughed.

Rose glared at them.

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking… no, he was being stupid**

"No really?" Fred asked snickering.

**Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. **

"There's only one Harry Potter in the wizardring world" Teddy stated.

**Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew **_**was **_**called Harry. He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold. **

"For some reason, I don't think Grandma or Grandpa would call Daddy that. If they were still around" Lily said, mumbling the last part.

**There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her — if **_**he'd **_**had a sister like that…**

"Wow his sister is him as a female and he thinks he has the right to say bad stuff about hers" Teddy said, having seen a picture of Harry's Aunt Marge.

**But all the same, those people in cloaks…**

"He's putting it together!" Scorpius said.

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

"That poor, poor person" James sighed. Everyone sniggered.

"**Sorry,"**

"He knows the word!" Albus gasped

**he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. **

"Is that Flitwick?" Rose asked.

**It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak.**

"Nooooooo!"

**He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passersby stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last!**

Everyone who hadn't known what day this was, gasped.

**Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"**

"That's pretty stupid" Rose said.

**And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.**

"His arms fit?" James asked, which made the kids collapse into giggles.

**Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. **

"Again, that's really careless of us. We should be ashamed." Rose said.

**He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination. **

"What NO!" James and Fred screamed.

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw—and it didn't improve his mood — was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning.**

"Minnie" Fred, James and, surprisingly, Albus.

**It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes. **"**Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly.**

"That won't work" sang James and Fred.

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.**

Everyone shuddered. They had all experienced that look.

**Was this normal cat behavior?**

"Nope" said Lily

**Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

"Wow, he's more determined than I thought" James said.

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's **

"What a nice name"

**problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Won't!"). **

"I wonder how he'll use that." Hugo sniggered.

**Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news: **"_**And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern."**_** The newscaster allowed himself a grin.**

"Maybe he's a wizard" Lily suggested

_**"Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?" **_"_**Well, Ted,"**_

"Ah, that explains it" Teddy said. "What?" Albus asked. "I think that's my grandfather." Albus nodded at this

_**said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early — it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight." **_**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters…**

"He's putting it together" Scorpius said again.

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good.**

"What the tea?" James mused.

**He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er — Petunia, dear — you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister**

"That's really mean. I couldn't imagine life without our Lily." Albus said. James nodded and Lily smiled gratefully at them. "

**No," she said sharply. "Why?" **"**Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls… shooting stars… and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today…" **"_**So?**_**" snapped Mrs. Dursley. **"**Well, I just thought… maybe… it was something to do with… you know… **_**her **_**crowd."**

"And what does that mean?" Rose said angrily.

"Er- witches and wizards" Albus said nervously.

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son — he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?" **"**I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly. **"**What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"**

"That name doesn't suit Daddy." Lily said

"**Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me." **

"I like it" said Lily softly.

**Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree." He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. **

Everyone looked a bit green.

**While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept **

"Like a walrus can creep." Scorpius said

**to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. **

"She's still there" James exclaimed

**It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something. **

Teddy thought he knew who she waiting for.

**Was he imagining things?**

"Well, you have said you don't approve of imagination, so obviously you can't" Rose said.

**Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did… if it got out that they were related to a pair of — well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

"A pair of what?" Lily snarled.

**The Dursleys got into bed. **

"Eww!" Hugo said quietly.

**Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, **

"We need to know this because?" Rose asked

**turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters **_**were **_**involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind… He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on — he yawned and turned over — it couldn't affect **_**them**_**…**

**How very wrong he was. **"

"He jinxed it!" Albus yelled.

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. **

"Is she waiting for something?" Rose asked

**It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all. **

"How can she do that?" asked James.

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

Albus smiled. He thought she was waiting for his namesake

**Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. **

Everyone smiled, knowing who it was.

**He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore. **

"Yay! My namesake!" Albus said, smiling.

"No I thought it was Louis" Albus huffed while everyone else laughed.

Rose thought this would be a good time to start reading.

**He clicked it again — the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, **

"Cool" James and Fred both yelled excitedly.

Hugo thought about how funny it would be to tell them that his Dad had that same invention.

**until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it. **"**Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall." **

"I knew it!" yelled James, Albus, Fred, Scorpius and Teddy.

"No one doubted you" Lily laughed.

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.**

"Of course she was" Rose stated _the world had just lost two great people _she thought sadly.

"**How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

"It's not very hard" said Fred

"**My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly." **

"Well there's that too" Fred added to his previous statement.

"**You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall. **

"No one asked her to" Albus said.

"**All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily. **

Cue snorts.

"**Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no — even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls… shooting stars… Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent — I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

"Hey, I like Diggle" was the thing that house-elves heard.

"**You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years." **

"Wow that long?" Lily asked.

"Yes, it was a long time." Teddy replied.

"**I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors." **

"That's true I guess." Rose muttered.

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. **

"That would be funny" James said.

**I suppose he really **_**has **_**gone, Dumbledore?" **"**It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. **"**We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?" **

"Ah, Dumbledore and his sweets" Teddy said.

"**A **_**what**_**?" **

"Yes what is it?" Scorpius asked

. "**A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

"Oh, that's what it is" Scorpius said

"**No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. **

"It's _always_ the moment for lemon drops!" Albus cried.

**"As I say, even if You-Know-Who **_**has **_**gone —" **

"Stop saying You-know-who!" the kids yelled.

"**My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense — for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: **_**Voldemort**_**." **

"Fear of a name, only increases the fear of the thing itself" James said, being all wise and Dumbledore-like.

**Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. **

"I thought they were wrapped per lemon drop." Teddy joked.

**"It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."**

"That's true" Scorpius said

**"I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, **_**Voldemort**_**, **

"Yay! Minnie said the name" James and Fred said, applauding the said teacher

"You know, she's not here" Lily laughed

**was frightened of." **"**You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have." **

"You'll always be better than Voldy" James said.

Everyone laughed again.

"**Only because you're too — well —**_**noble **_**to use them."**

"And there's that too" James said.

"**It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."**

Most people looked a bit green at this.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the **_**rumors **_**that are flying around. You know what they're saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?" **

"Now we're going to hear what happened" Teddy predicted.

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer. **

"Typical Dumbledore" Teddy laughed with everyone else.

"**What they're **_**saying**_**," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. **

The laughter stopped and everyone went quiet.

**The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are — are — that they're — **_**dead**_**."**

If you were looking at Albus, James and Lily you would see tears streaming down their faces.

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped. **"**Lily and James… I can't believe it… I didn't want to believe it… Oh, Albus…" **

"They sounded like they were amazing people" Rose sighed.

She too had tears in her eyes.

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know… I know…" he said heavily. Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry. **

"WHAT!" all the kids sans Teddy and Albus yelled.

Albus grinned.

"You know he's still here." They blushed.

**But he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke — and that's why he's gone." **

"Now we know what he's famous for" Hugo said.

**Dumbledore nodded glumly. **"**It's — it's **_**true**_**?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done… all the people he's killed… he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding… of all the things to stop him… but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"**

"That's what we want to know" everyone yelled.

"**We can only guess." said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

"In other words, you do know, you just don't want to say" James said.

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. **

"Dumbledore"

**It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?" **

"Yay Hagrid" yelled James, Fred and Lily.

"**Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me **_**why **_**you're here, of all places?"**

Teddy sighed and got ready for the explosion.

"**I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now." **

"No!" The kids yelled.

It took twenty minutes to calm everyone down.

"**You don't mean – you **_**can't **_**mean the people who live **_**here**_**?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore — you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son — I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!" **

"It was nice of her to try" Rose said.

"**It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."**

"Really, a letter?" Lily said in calm voice.

"**A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous — a legend — I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future — there will be books written about Harry **

"We're reading them!" James said

— **every child in our world will know his name!" **

"Unfortunately" Albus muttered.

"**Exactly." said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"**

"He has a point but still..." Rose said, quietly.

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes — yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it. **

"That would be funny" Fred laughed

"**You think it —**_**wise **_**— to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

"I would trust Hagrid with my life" everyone said

Teddy took a look at the next line and chuckled.

"**I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore. **

The place went silent and then everyone burst out laughing

"**I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. **

"I wouldn't trust him with a secret though" Rose said.

**He does tend to — what was that?" A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky — and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

"Awesome!" James and Fred yelled.

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so **_**wild **_**— long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. **

That's an awesome description of Hagrid,most people thought.

**In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

"Dad" was said by James, Albus and Lily.

"**Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?" **"**Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black**

"My other namesake!" James yelled.

"**No problems, were there?"**"**No, sir — house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."**

"Note to self: Uncle Harry falls asleep while flying over Bristol" Fred joked.

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair **

"The potter hair" said James and Albus.

Lily groaned

**over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning. **

"**Is that where —?" whispered Professor McGonagall.**"**Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."**"**Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"** "**Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. **

"That one dosen't. All it does has made him famous." Scorpius said.

**I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground. **

"I have one like that too" Albus said.

**Well — give him here, Hagrid — we'd better get this over with."Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.**

"No" everyone yelled.

"**Could I — could I say good-bye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog. **

"That's so sweet" Lily said.

"**Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "You'll wake the Muggles!"**"**S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it —Lily an' James dead — an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles —" **

"Hagrid cares so much." Rose said.

"**Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

"No not the twinkle!" yelled Fred and James.

"**Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

"No don't." Lily said softly.

"**Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I best get this bike away. G'night, Professor McGonagall — Professor Dumbledore, sir."**

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

"That is really cool!" James and Fred said half-heartedly

"**I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.**

"That was nice of her" Fred joked.

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street.**

"I wish I could have something like that" sighed Fred.

**He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

"**Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

"He'll need more than luck" Teddy muttered.

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley… **

Growls were heard.

**He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter — the boy who lived!"**

"I think Grandma and Grandpa Weasley did that" said Fred, surprisingly thoughtful.

"That's the end of the chapter" Teddy said "also in the next chapter, there will be things that that happened to Harry. Please don't judge Dudley about it. It's in the past and it's already happened. Dudley has changed. Now who would like to read next?" Teddy asked after his little speech.

"I will" Rose said.

"**Chapter two: the vanishing glass"**

**A/N: two chapter's in one night. (I start to clap). Here's the disclaimer: I don't HP. Anyhow, see you soon!**

**Star!**


	3. The vanishing glass

**Chapter 2**

**A/N: the next part of my 'reading the books with next gen' I was thinking of maybe adding more people in to it. I'm going to put a poll up of who you would like. OK. One more thing: if I owned HP why would I be reading fanfiction?**

"**The Vanishing Glass**.**" **Rose read.

"What is this about dad?" Albus asked.

"Al, it's obvious that it's accidental magic" Rose pointed out.

Teddy smiled knowingly, but was a bit nervous about how they would react when the home life popped up.

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step,**

All the females growled.

**But Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. **

"How boring" said Fred.

**The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, **

Lily giggled at this, imagining the sun, creeping into the room.

**which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **

"Drama queens" coughed Scorpius.

**Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets — **

Everyone looked confused

**but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby,**

Now everyone burst out laughing

**and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father,**

"Muggle things" Rose said

**being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

"Maybe someone took him" Albus said hopefully.

**Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, **

"Damn" James muttered

**but not for long. **

"How come?" Lily asked

**His Aunt Petunia was awake, **

"Oh" Lily said

**and it was her shrill voice which made the first noise of the day.**

Everyone winced at that.

**"Up! Get up! Now!"** **Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.**

Fred had a funny image of Harry's aunt Petunia rapping on a door.

**"Up!" she screeched. **

"She sounds like an owl" Hugo said quietly.

**Harry heard her walking towards the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the cooker. **

"Was he that close to the kitchen?" Fred asked.

**He rolled on to his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one.**

"What was it?" Scorpius asked cautiously.

**There had been a flying motorbike in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

"Wow, you have a good memory" said Lily.

**His aunt was back outside the door.**

**"Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

**"Nearly," said Harry.**

**"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

Snorts filled the room.

**Harry groaned.**

"I can understand that" said James muttered to Fred.

**"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.**

**"Nothing, nothing ..." Dudley's birthday - how could he have forgotten?**

"Very easily, it seems" Albus said, trying to look wise.

**Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider**

Rose shivered

**Off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, **

She shivered again

**Because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, **

"What does that have to do with anything?" Lily asked curiously

**And that was where he slept.**

The chaos that came with that sentence was astonishing for Teddy, even though he had prepared for it.

James and Fred grabbed parchment and had started to write how they could prank the Dursley's, Albus, Rose and Scorpius looked murderous and Lily and Hugo looked like they were about to cry.

A cheap vase smashed into thousands of pieces as Rose and Lily started shouting in madness.

Hugo swore under his breath.

Albus decided to help James and Fred with pranking the Dursley's.

After thirty minutes, everyone calmed down.

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. **

"How many presents did he get?" asked Albus.

"I think it'll tell you" Teddy replied.

**It looked as though Dudley had got the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.**

"Muggle stuff" Rose said when all the purebloods looked confused.

**Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise - unless of course it involved punching somebody. **

"That better not mean Daddy" Lily growled.

**Dudley's favourite punch-bag was Harry, **

Everyone growled

**But he couldn't often catch him.**

"Well, there's that." Lily sighed.

**Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.** **Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.**

"Nah, it's just the potter genes" James smirked.

**He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.**

"He was bigger than Crabbe and Goyle put together" Teddy exclaimed.

**Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair **

"That's what every male potter has" James said,

**and bright-green eyes.**

"Grandma Lily" Albus thought.

**He wore round glasses held together by a lot of Sellotape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.**

More growling.

**The only thing Harry liked about his appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead which was shaped like a bolt of lightning. **

"He liked it?" Hugo asked, surprised.

"Well, one; it was one of the only things that he had from his parents, two; it made him unique, and three; he didn't know what it represented." Teddy explained.

Everyone nodded at this.

**He had had it as long as he could remember and the first question he could ever remember asking his aunt was how he had got it.**

_Please, tell him the truth _Rose pleaded in her head

**"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said.**

"WHAT!" Everyone yelled.

It took another ten minutes to calm everyone down.

"**And don't ask questions."**

Teddy wondered something. In class, Harry had apparently never asked questions. Was this why?

**Don't ask questions — that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

"But a quiet life is a boring life" complained Fred.

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.**

"Potter luck" muttered Albus

"**Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.**

"Not gonna work" sang James.

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way — all over the place.**

Scorpius frowned. At Hogwarts, he thought that Albus made it like that on purpose. Now he knew that wasn't right.

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. **

"I almost feel sorry for him. _Almost_" laughed Hugo.

**He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.**

"So basically a pig in a wig" Albus said.

Rose laughed.

**Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel — **

"Well she needs glasses" Teddy huffed.

**Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

"Cool, I'm like dad" Albus said as everyone else laughed.

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

"Did ickle Dudleykins not get enough presents?" Fred asked rhetorically.

"**Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

"What a spoilt brat" Rose huffed.

"**Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."**

"Mummy and Daddy" Lily giggled

"You call Dad daddy" countered James

"Yes, but I'm five, Dudley is eleven"

"Point taken"

"**All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

"Good idea, dad" James said.

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, **

"Thank you Aunt Tuney" Lily said.

"You used the nickname that Uncle Harry uses" Hugo accused

"Actually, it was my grandma who came up with it" Albus explained

**"And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?"**

"No that's not alright, mummy. I want you to get the presents, and I'll stay home." James said in a voice that sounded like Dudley.

"Oh, never mind" Lily muttered.

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work.**

"Of course it does" Fred said.

**Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty… thirty…"**

"Merlin, he can't even count" James said.

"Can you two shut up?" Rose and Lily asked at the same time.

Both boys shook their heads.

"Let's continue with not as many interruptions" Albus said and James and Fred nodded.

"**Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

"**Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

**Uncle Vernon chuckled.**

"**Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR.**

"More muggle stuff" Rose sighed.

**He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

"**Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him."**

**She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

"He's got a name" Rose said angrily.

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

"If it was fun, Uncle Harry wouldn't be allowed back there" James said

"**Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.**

Lily smiled. Her dad was funny when he was younger.

"**We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

"**Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."**

"Well I hate her too." Albus said.

"Was that the one he...?" Hugo trailed off

"Yes that was her" James smiled

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there — or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

"That's not very nice" Lily said quietly.

"**What about what's-her-name, your friend — Yvonne?"**

"**On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

"**You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).**

"Oh no, that would be too much fun for you" Scorpius said.

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.**

"So her normal look then?" James asked.

"**And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled. **"**I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.** "**I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "… and leave him in the car…"**

"He is not a dog" Rose snapped.

"**That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone…"**

"Because, your car is more important than your nephew" Rose said.

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying — it had been years since he'd really cried — but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

"**Dinky Duddydums,**

Everyone burst out laughing.

"Again I almost feel sorry for him" James said.

**don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

"**I… don't… want… him… t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

Growls could be heard from Lily and Rose.

**Just then, the doorbell rang — "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically — and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother.**

**Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat.**

**He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

"Then, he's not a true friend" Albus said.

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. **

"That's sad" Rose said.

**His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

"**I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, **

"Spit on it" cheered James and Fred

**"I'm warning you now, boy — any funny business, anything at all — and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

Even more growls from Rose, Hugo and Lily.

"**I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly…**

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.**

"But at Hogwarts they will." James said.

**The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

"He technically did" Rose said.

"But the Dursley's probably thought he did them on purpose" Albus said.

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar."**

"She didn't want witches and wizards to recognise him" Hugo said.

**Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.**

Everyone thought how sad that was.

**Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.**

"That's the awesomeness of our hair" James told Albus.

Lily groaned.

**He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

"Petunia should know that it's accidental magic. Her sister was a witch, after all" Teddy said.

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls).**

"Ew" the girls said in unison.

**The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry.**

James, Albus, Fred and Lily burst out laughing, while the others chuckled.

**Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.**

"That's good" Rose sighed.

**On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens.**

"How did he get up there and why?" Rose asked.

Teddy just said, "I'm sure it'll be explained"

**Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**

"That's quite impressive accidental magic" Teddy said, gobsmacked.

The kids thought that it was amazing.

**Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**

"He either apparated or flew" Rose said.

**The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings.**

"That's not really fair" Lily said softly. She then climbed into her god-brother's lap.

Teddy smiled down at her.

**But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) **

"I. HATE. THEM!" Rose yelled.

**Was jump behind the big trashcans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.**

Scorpius looked down. His friend's dad thought he was so light, at that time, that a wind could have caught him mid-jump. He wasn't so envious of Albus anymore. All his best friend's dad wanted was a family. Of course, he had it now, but he didn't before.

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. **

"You jinxed it" complained James. He was about to add more, but a look from his sister silenced him.

**It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.**

Lily hugged her god-brother. She couldn't believe her dad had had such a bad life, when she and her brother's had a wonderful one.

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things:**

"Wonderful" Scorpius drawled sarcastically

**people at work, Harry,**

"Complaining his nephew in front of him...pathetic" Lily muttered

**the council, Harry,**

"You've made that clear" Rose said

**the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.**

"Hey, didn't daddy didn't have a dream/memory about Sirius' motorbike that flew." Lily said.

"… **roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.**

"**I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

"Yes, it was. That sounded like fun." Lily said, oblivious to the people around her face palming.

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front.**

"Dramatic, much" Fred mused

**He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a moustache: **

"I wish he had a camera then so we could see what he looked like." Teddy said to the potter kids, who were trying to imagine what that looked like.

**"MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"**

"That one did, I wonder what happened to it?" James commented.

**Dudley and Piers sniggered.** "**I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."**

"No it's not daddy. It's a _memory_." Lily exclaimed.

**But he wished he hadn't said anything.**

"That would have been a good idea" James said

**If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon —they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

"What's he going to do with those ideas?" Rose asked.

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop.**

"Well better than nothing" Lily said as Albus said

"I like those"

**It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

James, Fred and George laughed their heads off at that.

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him. **

"Good idea" Teddy said

**They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first. **

"What a brat!" Rose

"At least he got something" Lily said

**Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.**

"What happened?" Lily asked worriedly

"You'll see"

**After lunch they went to the reptile house.**

Everyone looked interested.

**It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place.**

"Of course he did" Albus sighed.

**It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can**

"he should do that" Fred said

— **but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.**

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

"**Make it move," he whined at his father. **

"That's why you shouldn't spoil a child. They'll just get dependent on you" Teddy said.

**Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

"**Do it again," Dudley ordered. **

"Point proven" Teddy said.

**Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

"Good snake" Albus muttered. His dad had told him about being a parselmouth due to Voldemort, but he wasn't sure if he told James and Lily.

"**This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

"You're boring" Scorpius said.

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself**

"I would've" Albus muttered to Scorpius.

He nodded

— **no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long.**

"I feel sorry for him" Lily said quietly.

**It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

"Uncle Harry is comparing himself to a snake" Hugo said slowly

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.**

Lily, James and Albus all became rather excited.

**It winked.**

"Whoa, Uncle Harry is a parselmouth" Fred said amazed "are you guys parselmouths too?"

"Dad said I am apparently" Albus said quietly.

To his amazement, everyone grinned at that.

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

Now that Albus thought about it, he had done the same, but wondered if he should tell anyone.

He hadn't.

**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:**

"**I get that all the time."**

"**I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

"Yes it must be" Lily said quietly.

She too had experiences with snakes, and she found them, interesting, to say the least.

**The snake nodded vigorously.**

"**Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.**

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.**

**Boa Constrictor, Brazil.**

"That's really cool" Fred said.

"**Was it nice there?"**

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. **

Lily giggled.

Her dad, _Harry Potter_, was having a conversation with a snake.

About _Brazil, _of all places.

**"Oh, I see — so you've never been to Brazil?"**

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

"Stupid rat-faced boy" Teddy muttered.

He was the only one who knew about Pettigrew.

**Dudley came waddling**

"What is he, a penguin?" James asked siriusly. **(****A/N: Sorry, I couldn't resist!)**

**toward them as fast as he could.**

"**Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. **

Everyone was glaring at the book so hard, Rose was amazed that it had not been set on fire.

**Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor.**

**What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened — one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

"What did he do?" Lily asked worriedly.

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.**

"Well, now we know what the title meant" James sighed.

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

Scorpius sniggered.

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amigo."**

"What a polite snake." Fred snickered

"I wonder if he made it." Rose said softly.

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

"Well, I would be too." Scorpius said to Albus.

"**But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

"Poor man" Lily said.

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg,**

"I wish" Hugo muttered so no one could hear him.

**while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.**

"He should have done that" Scorpius said.

**But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

"That bi-" Teddy said before James pounced on him.

"No swearing Teddy" James said playfully.

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go — cupboard — stay — no meals,"**

"How dare they? That's child abuse." Rose yelled

Everyone else was just as mad.

**before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

No one said anything, as they wanted the book to burn.

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.**

**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years,****as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. **

Lot's of growling.

**He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light**

"I remember seeing that on a chocolate frog card" James muttered

**and a burning pain on his forehead.**

"That's his scar" Lily realized

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all.**

"That's sad, they sounded like good people" Rose said sadly.

**His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened;**

"I just thought; what about his god-father" Teddy said

**the Dursleys were his only family.**

"Not much of a family" Lily muttered.

**Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too.**

"Wow, I suppose that's why they're always staring at us. I never realized he was this famous" Albus said.

**A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley.**

"Diggle" muttered everyone who had met the man.

**After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus.**

"How reckless were they?" Rose asked, surprised.

"Well, I suppose they didn't believe that Voldemort would come back." Teddy explained.

**A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word.**

Lily giggled.

That was a bit funny, even though it was really reckless.

**The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.**

"That wasn't very nice of them" Rose huffed.

**At school, Harry had no one.**

The mood grew somber.

**Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

"That's cowardly" Scorpius said.

"_I _would like to disagree with Dudley's gang." Fred said solemnly

"Who'd like to..." Rose began, but never got to finish, because there was a flash of white light and out came three ruffled-looking boys.

"Where are we?" One of them asked.

**A/N: Okay, so I'm going to put a poll up on who you would like the three boys to be. I've already got a couple of ideas, but I want you to decide. Okay, and 'Letters to you' chapter six will be up soon, sorry that you'll have to wait a little longer.**

**See you soon!**

**Star ~ **


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